History

In 2015, the Part I Program was initiated and executed to identify the need for a new school building, where it could go, what it would likely cost, and justify why it should happen; this document put the project into the state’s capital project queue.

In 2021, the Part II program was executed to solicit feedback from all constituent entities and fully describe a list all functions, spaces, assets, and systems that would need to be incorporated into the new building.

In 2022, after recommendation by the University System of Maryland and approval by the Department of Budget and Management, the legislature passed and governor signed the appropriation bill that included the initial funding to begin design of a new building.

In 2023, over the first seven months of the design process, the Architecture/Engineering team met with 18 distinct constituent groups, in addition to university facilities staff and leadership, over the course of eight workshops for a cumulative duration totaling over 60 hours. Those discussions centered around school-wide goals and departmental needs, as well as building operational systems and campus utilities.

Schematic design consisted of developing the conceptual vision, refining arrangements and adjacencies, selecting the utility and operational systems, establishing the structure, determining the enclosure systems, and composing the architectural massing in order to lay the groundwork to focus more on the project specifics.

In the beginning of the design development phase, the comments from schematic design were reviewed, discussed, and incorporated to advance the further development of the interior organization, general functionality, and the exterior articulation of the enclosure systems to refine the character of the building. This phase took place in the first part of 2024, during which feedback also was solicited from 18 participants across four subcommittees on all specialty, faculty, staff, student, and public spaces to ensure the inclusivity and accessibility of the new building. Sustainability and maintainability efforts continued with input from UMB utilities managers and maintenance experts. And lastly, as is done at every phase, two competing cost estimates were independently produced and reconciled, alternate options were considered, and value engineering was conducted to maintain financial control of the project on behalf of the state.